Cherokee Nation celebrates grand opening of Marshal Service, Language Department satellite offices in Kenwood

KENWOOD, Okla. - The Cherokee Nation on Sept. 26 celebrated the opening of a new Marshal Service satellite office and a new Cherokee Language Department office in Kenwood.

Both offices are located near the tribe's 33,000-square-foot Woody Hair Community Center which opened in 2024 and houses a Head Start facility, elder nutrition program, wellness space, and facilities that accommodate community and school functions.

"Serving Cherokee communities at the grassroots level has proven successful for many generations, and that is why Deputy Chief Bryan Warner and I have advocated for continued investment into our Cherokee communities. Here in Kenwood, we have seen the impact of providing small communities with quality-of-life infrastructure that encourages fellowship among family and friends," said Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. "Today we celebrate the opening of new satellite offices for the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service and the Cherokee Language Department. These Cherokee Nation departments have always had a presence in the Kenwood community, and both are focused on serving the Cherokee people. The Marshal Service is protecting our communities and upholding our inherent sovereignty, and the Cherokee Language Department is on a critical mission to ensure the Cherokee language grows and thrives with each new generation of Cherokees. Both are unique departments, and yet both serve the same underlying sense of purpose, putting the Cherokee people at the heart of who we are and how we serve one another."

Within a 15-mile radius of Kenwood are nearly 16,000 Cherokee citizens.

"When we opened the new Woody Hair Community Center here in Kenwood, we could immediately see and feel the sense of pride in how Cherokee Nation is investing in our smallest of communities," said Deputy Chief Warner. "Adding a satellite office for our Marshal Service and Language Department is another step in bringing new life and new opportunities to the area."

The new Cherokee Nation Marshal Service satellite office is part of the tribe's five-year strategic plan for the law enforcement arm of the tribe. Acting Marshal Daniel Mead proposed the strategic plan in July and outlined, among other initiatives, a goal of providing a small satellite office for deputy marshals operating in the northern region of the Cherokee Nation Reservation, giving them space to meet with Cherokee citizens who live in the area when needed.

"Among the goals of the Office of the Marshal is embracing community policing practices and building confidence and visibility at the grassroots level. Having a satellite office in Kenwood will also help improve response time to some of our calls for assistance, so it's a great benefit to have this space near the Woody Hair Community Center," Mead said. "Our deputy marshals have always been a part of this community and our many other rural communities, and we look forward to continuing our efforts at building even stronger relationships with the residents of Kenwood in the years to come."

The new Cherokee Language Department office will be home to the first Kenwood cohort of up to 16 Cherokee Language Master/Apprentice students. The Cherokee Nation established the Cherokee Language Master/Apprentice Program in 2014 to teach adults to be proficient conversational Cherokee speakers and teachers.

"We are grateful for the opportunity to expand our Cherokee Language Master/Apprentice Program to include our first Kenwood cohort," said Howard Paden, Executive Director of the Cherokee Language Department. "This space gives us an opportunity to teach more Cherokees to be fluent in our language, and that means we have yet another way of helping to revitalize the Cherokee language."

Participants receive an hourly educational stipend and typically spend 40 hours per week for two years immersed in the Cherokee language with master-level, fluent Cherokee speakers. So far, nearly 70 students have graduated through the Tahlequah-based program, and the first Kenwood cohort of students will begin soon.

The Cherokee Nation Language Department now estimates there are less than 1,500 first-language, fluent Cherokee speakers who are over the age of 60. The goal of the Language Department is to graduate more than 25 second-language speakers per year through the tribe's language programs, including CLMAP.

Since taking office in 2019, Chief Hoskin and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner have worked with the Council of the Cherokee Nation to invest historic resources - more than $68 million - into Cherokee language capital projects. Last year, the Administration signed into law a permanent Durbin Feeling Language Preservation Act that sets aside a minimum budget of more than $18 million annually for Cherokee language efforts.

Along with opening the two new offices in Kenwood, Chief Hoskin and Deputy Chief Warner also announced plans for a multi-phase housing project in the community. The Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation project calls for nine new affordable rental houses, including three new one-bedroom, one-bathroom rentals and one new two-bedroom rental during Phase 1, followed by three new one-bedroom rentals and two new two-bedroom rentals in Phase 2.

The new houses will be constructed as part of the tribe's historic investment in housing under the Hoskin / Warner administration. Last year Chief Hoskin, Deputy Chief Warner and the Council reauthorized the Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act, injecting at least $40 million into housing and community infrastructure every three years. In his recent State of the Nation Address Chief Hoskin called for an additional $30 million for affordable rental housing in struggling communities under the Public Health and Wellness Fund Act. The tribe will primarily tap public health dollars to fund the new Kenwood rental units.

"For the community of Kenwood, having the Language and the Marshal Service over here, this community will grow. We have a cell tower thanks to the work of Cherokee Nation, now we know we're getting new housing, and we have the Woody Hair Community Center - these have all made a difference," said District 9 Councilor Clifton Hughes. "The Chief and the Deputy Chief, they had a bigger vision, and they're putting that bigger vision into action."